Flight

Birds fly by flapping their wings, steering mainly with their tails. Compared to the parts of an airplane, a bird’s wing acts as both wing and propeller. The basal part of the wing supplies most of the supporting surface, the wing tip most of the propelling force. A bird’s wing has many adjustable features: it can be shortened or lengthened by flexion; the feathers of the tip can be spread or closed; the angle of the whole wing or its parts—on one side or both—can be altered. All of these adjustments make the aerodynamics of a bird’s wing much more complicated than those of the airplane; consequently, the flight of a bird is much more varied and adaptable.

The types of flight found in birds vary considerably, and different types of wings correlate with different types of flight. At least two major types of modifications for gliding or soaring are found. Albatrosses and some other seabirds have long, narrow wings and take advantage of winds over the oceans, whereas some vultures and hawks have broad wings with slotted tips that permit more use of updrafts and winds deflected by hills. Short, broad wings are characteristic of chickenlike birds, which fly up with a rush of rapid wing beats. Birds such as ducks, pigeons, and falcons, which fly rapidly with continuous wing beats, tend to have moderately long, pointed wings. Many songbirds use their short, rounded wings to move with quick wing beats from perch to perch or from ground to perch. Ducks have pointed wings that, beaten at high speed, provide rapid flight for long distances. Swallows, terns, and frigate birds have long, pointed wings that enable these birds to fly and maneuver gracefully for hours with leisurely wing beats. Large herons with long, broad wings travel far with slow, measured strokes, while buzzards soar high in the sky on their long, broad wings. Gulls and albatrosses, with their long, narrow wings flapping infrequently, sail along the beaches or over the waves. Swifts and hummingbirds, with their narrow, curved wings, fly rapidly and maneuver easily. A hummingbird can whir its tiny wings so rapidly that it can hover as it thrusts its long bill into a blossom; it can even fly backward as it leaves the bloom.

The shape of a bird’s tail also appears to be related to flight. The forked tails of frigate birds and terns enable quick changes of direction, and the barn swallow uses its deeply forked tail in making the intricate patterns of its graceful flight. A goshawk pursuing its prey through the forest uses its long tail in making quick turns. There is, however, such great diversity in birds’ tails that the precise size and shape probably is not of critical importance. For example, ducks, with their short tails, have a swift but direct flight, but long, graduated tails are often found in rapid, direct fliers such as some parrots and doves. Woodpeckers and some other climbing birds have strong tail feathers with stout shafts, which they use as props while on the trunks of trees.

The speed with which birds fly also varies greatly, and of course individual birds can vary their speed. Data on the speed of bird flight are difficult to evaluate. One of the complicating factors is that a bird’s speed in relation to the ground may depend on the force of the wind. Despite the variables involved in determining a bird’s speed of flight, the following generalized speeds, based on level flight in calm air, appear to be sound:

• 15–30 km/hr (kilometres per hour) (10–20 mph [miles per hour])—many small songbirds such as sparrows and wrens
• 30–50 km/hr (20–30 mph)—many medium-sized birds such as thrushes and grackles, and larger, long-winged birds such as herons, pelicans, and gulls
• 30–60 km/hr (20–40 mph)—many small- and medium-sized birds such as starlings, chimney swifts, and mourning doves
• 60–100 km/hr (40–60 mph)—the faster-flying birds such as falcons, ducks, geese, and domestic pigeons. A homing pigeon has been timed at 152 km/hr (94 mph).
• The fastest bird, however, is the peregrine falcon, whose speed in a dive has been measured in excess of 320 km/hr (200 mph).

The record long-range flight of a bird species in a single season is undoubtedly held by the Arctic terns that migrate from a summering ground in the Arctic to a wintering ground in the Antarctic, travelling more than 11,600 km (7,200 miles) each way. Some long-range flights are made very quickly: a blue-winged teal banded in Canada was recovered 6,100 km (3,800 miles) away in Venezuela only 30 days later; a Manx shearwater, trapped at its nest in Wales and transported 5,200 km (3,200 miles) to Massachusetts and released, returned home in 12¹/₂ days. Some very small birds regularly make long water crossings in a single flight. Ruby-throated hummingbirds fly across the more than 800-km- (500-mile-) wide Gulf of Mexico, and many warblers fly from the American coast to Bermuda, a journey of about the same distance. For further information, see migration.

Flightlessness

Some birds have completely lost the power of flight during the course of evolution. The close similarity in the basic structure of flightless and flying birds, however, indicates that they all had a common flying ancestor. The rudimentary wings and the flightless condition of penguins and the ratites (ostriches and the like) is therefore a secondary, specialized condition. That flightlessness is a secondary condition is made still more apparent in other flightless birds that belong to families most of whose members are capable of flight. The extinct great auk of the North Atlantic is one of the best-known examples of such a flightless bird; the rail family also is noted for having many flightless species living on islands in the Pacific and the South Atlantic. Loss of flight seems to occur most often on isolated islands where there are no mammalian predators. In New Zealand, where there are no native land mammals of any kind, there were many species of extinct flightless moas, and there are still flightless kiwis, penguins, and rails as well as a duck, an owl, and several songbirds that are nearly flightless. The ratites of South America (rhea), Africa (ostrich), and Australia (cassowary) present an apparent contradiction to this correlation of mammal-free island habitats with bird flightlessness. Another adaptation, however—their great size—has enabled these birds to escape predation by mammals.

Walking and hopping

The bipedal gait of birds, dictated by modification of the forelimbs for flight, necessitates manipulation of food by the bill and feet. This poses problems in balance. The relative lengths of the segments of the legs must be such that, as the bird shifts from a standing to a sitting position, its centre of gravity remains over the feet. As some birds moved out of the trees and became terrestrial or aquatic, their legs were accordingly modified. In very large, slow-moving birds such as moas, the leg bones became very heavy. The toes became shorter, and the opposable first toe has been lost in rapidly running forms such as rheas and ostriches. The ostrich is the fastest runner, crossing stretches of savanna at a speed of 72.5 km/hr (45 mph). The toes became very long in birds that walk on aquatic vegetation or soft ground. Jacanas with their greatly elongated toes and claws walk over floating water weeds, and herons with long legs wade in shallow water. Wading birds developed long, thin legs, and climbing birds developed short legs with strongly curved, sharp claws. In swimming and diving birds, webs developed between the toes or lobes on the sides of the toes.

Terrestrial birds such as pheasants tend to walk; arboreal songbirds tend to hop as they travel from branch to branch. Tree dwellers such as woodpeckers, toucans, and the other members of order Piciformes, as well as parrots, can travel easily up and down trees because both of their outer toes face backward; in almost all other birds, only one toe faces to the rear. Parrots often walk along branches, and house sparrows hop when they come to the ground, while palm warblers walk on the ground and some songbirds, such as American robins and European blackbirds, may both walk and hop. Some birds with small feet, such as swifts, hummingbirds, bee-eaters, and many hornbills, use their feet only for perching and rarely walk at all. Other birds with robust feet, such as guinea fowl and rails, do most of their moving about on foot.

The usual position of a bird’s body in walking is more or less parallel to the ground. But the penguins, with their feet far to the rear of their bodies, stand upright as they waddle along. When the Adélie penguin makes its trek of many miles over the snow-covered ice to its breeding grounds, it may vary its awkward waddle with periods of tobogganing—i.e., sliding along on its breast and propelling itself with thrusts of its feet.

Swimming and diving

Some birds (auks, diving petrels, and certain ducks) use the wings for propulsion underwater as well as in the air. The wings of penguins have become highly modified into paddles that allow them to “fly” underwater; they use their webbed feet only for steering. Auks, on the other hand, use both their wings and webbed feet in swimming underwater. Several other water birds have become so adapted to swimming that they are practically helpless on land. In this class are loons, which shuffle awkwardly the few feet from the water to their nests. Swimming in birds is usually correlated with webbed feet, but coots and grebes, with only lobes on their toes, also swim and dive, and gallinules, with neither webs nor lobes, commonly swim. On the other hand, frigate birds, with partly webbed feet, never swim.

Some birds, such as the mallard, usually swim at the surface, feeding only as far underwater as they can reach by dipping their heads. Other ducks, such as scoters and pochards, commonly dive to the bottom for their food, and cormorants, auks, and loons pursue fish underwater. Sometimes loons are taken at remarkable depths in fishermen’s nets and on set lines, indicating that they may dive as deep as 61 metres (200 feet). Emperor penguins, however, are the best divers, having been recorded at depths of 483 metres (1,584 feet).

Pond ducks, such as mallards and teals, spring straight up from the water’s surface into the air in flight, but many swimming birds—for example, coots, grebes, cormorants, and diving ducks—take off with a long spattering run along the surface.

Sound

Auditory signals, like visual ones, are almost universal among birds. The most familiar vocalization of birds is that usually referred to as “song” (see birdsong). It is a conspicuous sound (not necessarily musical) that is used, especially early in the breeding season, to attract a mate, to warn off another bird of the same sex, or both. As such it is usually associated with establishing and maintaining territories. Individual variation in songs of many species is well known, and it is believed that some birds can recognize their mates and neighbours by this variation. Many other types of vocalizations are also known. Pairs or flocks may be kept together by series of soft location notes. Alarm notes alert other individuals to the presence of danger; in fact, the American robin (and probably many other species) uses one note when it sees a hawk overhead and another when it sees a predator on the ground. Begging calls are important in stimulating parents to feed their young. Other calls are associated with aggressive situations, courtship, and mating. Nonvocal sounds are not uncommon. Some snipe and hummingbirds have narrow tail feathers that produce loud sounds when the birds are in flight, as do the narrowed outer primaries of the American woodcock. The elaborate courtship displays of grouse include vocalizations as well as stamping of the feet and noises made with the wings. Bill clapping is a common part of courtship in storks, and bill snapping is a common threat of owls.

Nesting

Most birds build nests in which the eggs are laid. Nests vary widely: they may be a scrape in the sand, a deep burrow, a hole in a tree or rock, an open cup, a globular or retort-shaped mass with a side entrance tube, or an elaborately woven hanging structure. The materials with which nests are made also vary widely. Some nests are lined with small stones, and others are built of dirt or mud with or without plant material. Sticks, leaves, algae, rootlets, and other plant fibres are used alone or in combination. Some birds seek out animal materials such as feathers, horsehair, or snakeskin. The nest materials may be held together by weaving, sewing, or felting the materials themselves or with mud or spider webs. Swifts use saliva to glue nest materials together and to attach the nest to the supporting structure. In at least one species of swift, the entire nest is made of saliva and is the prized ingredient of birds’ nest soup in the Orient.

All birds incubate their eggs, except megapodes (mound builders), which depend on the heat generated by decaying vegetation or other external sources, and brood parasites such as cuckoos and cowbirds, which lay their eggs in the nests of other species. Murres and the king and emperor penguins build no nest but incubate with the egg resting on top of the feet.

In most birds a brood patch on the abdomen is developed. This bare area is fluid-filled (edematous) and highly vascularized; it directly contacts the eggs during incubation. Its development during the breeding season is under hormonal control. When the parent is off the nest, adjacent feathers are directed over the brood patch, and it is usually not apparent. A few birds (e.g., boobies) keep their webbed feet over the eggs during incubation.

Incubation takes from 11 to 80 days, depending at least in part on the size of the bird and the degree of development at hatching. Most songbirds and members of some other groups are hatched nearly absent of feathers and helpless (altricial), and they are brooded until well able to regulate their body temperature. They are fed by the parents even after they are capable of flight. The young of numerous other birds, such as chickens, ducks, and shorebirds, are hatched with a heavy coat of down and are capable of foraging for themselves almost immediately (precocial). Still others, such as the petrels and the auks, are downy when hatched but remain in the nest and are fed by their parents.

The length of time that parents care for young birds varies widely. Young megapodes can fly shortly after hatching and are entirely independent of their parents; young royal albatrosses may spend more than eight months at the nest and in the area immediately around it before they can fly. The length of time needed to attain independence is related to size and condition at hatching. Ground-nesting birds tend to take less and hole-nesting birds more time than the average.

The number of eggs in a set (clutch) varies from 1 to about 20. Some species invariably lay the same number per clutch (determinate laying), whereas in the majority the number is variable (indeterminate laying). In species of the latter category, clutch size tends to be smaller in tropical regions than in cold ones. There is also a tendency for birds in warm regions to make more nesting attempts in a given season. In the Arctic, where the season is very short, the cycle of breeding and the molt that follows it are compressed into a minimum of time.

Feeding habits

The earliest birds were probably insectivorous, as are many modern ones, and the latter have evolved many specializations for catching insects. Swifts, swallows, and nightjars have wide gapes for catching insects on the wing; some woodpeckers can reach wood-boring grubs, whereas others can catch ants by probing anthills with their long, sticky tongues; thrashers dig in the ground with their bills; tree creepers and woodhewers probe bark crevices; and warblers glean insects from many kinds of vegetation. Raptorial birds (raptors and owls) have evolved talons and hooked bills for feeding on larger animals, and vultures have bare heads and tearing bills for feeding on carrion. Herons have spearlike bills and trigger mechanisms in the neck for catching fish, while kingfishers, terns, and boobies plunge into the water after similar prey. Long-billed waders probe for worms and other invertebrates. Of the many kinds of birds that feed on plant material, most use seeds, fruit, or nectar, which are high in food value; leaves and buds are eaten by fewer species. While some kinds of birds feed entirely on a single kind of food, others may take a wide range of foods, and many have seasonal changes in diet.